Trust records in the office work of the Assumption Tikhvin Monastery in the 1620–1660s: scope and designe features

Abstract

The article deals with the study of the trust records from the archive of the Assumption Tikhvin Monastery. The Tikhvin Assumption Monastery owned the Tikhvin trading and craft settlement and estates. The monastery was granted the right to judge civil cases over the population under its jurisdiction. Warrants were widely used in the everyday life of the local monastery community. They were needed when concluding a contract for admission to the posad people, bobyli or peasants. Warrants were also used for disciplinary purposes – to ensure appearance in court, to avoid situations when a member of the local community did not ensure payment of taxes and fulfillment of natural duties. A significant part of the warrants was issued as preventive measures against offenders to prevent illegal production and trade in alcoholic beverages, theft, and the use of violence. The article analyzes the warrants from the archive of the Tikhvin Assumption Monastery. The lack of unification of the terminology used and its changes during the 1620–1660s , the lack of a unified approach to authentication of sureties, and the varying degree of detail in the content of clauses that are similar in meaning are shown. The author concludes that the wording of obligations in sureties regarding the payment of taxes and the performance of natural duties generally do not contain specific information and cannot be used to assess the degree of strengthening or weakening of the tax burden.